Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays is talking with the Chairman of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and Oklahoma Rancher, Jimmy Taylor. Hays and Taylor talk about the upcoming Beef Promotion Operating Committee meeting in Denver on September 6-7.
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Coming up after Labor Day, the Beef Promotion Operating Committee will be holding their annual September meeting where they come together to decide which projects will be funded for the fiscal year of 2024, which starts October 1. The Beef Promotion Operating Committee consists of 20 cattle producers- ten from the beef board and ten from the federation.
At the summer business meeting back in July, Taylor told Hays the beef board and federation had six program committees that beef producers and contractors met in. After hearing these presentations- beef producers were able to give their ideas on how those need to be changed to be better, what they don’t like- they might get some things taken out. They had input on each one of those programs.
Ahead of the September meeting, Taylor said the contractors will take the programs and tweak them based on producer comments. After this, Taylor said the new and improved versions will be taken to the September operating committee meeting to decide which projects to use.
“It is going to be a little tougher this year; as we have talked before, our funding is a little less each year because of inflation,” Taylor said. “A dollar in 1985 is worth 35 cents today, so we don’t have the buying power that we had when this program first started. So, every year, we are eight to ten million dollars short on what projects we can do and what money we have available. This year, it is actually 12 million dollars that we are short.”
Being short on funding means some difficult decisions will be made, Taylor said, as the projects are competitive.
“They are all good projects; we are going to have to decide where we can get the most bang for our buck, which ones will benefit our industry the most, and then the producers will make those decisions to select the projects that will move us forward,” Taylor said.
There are approximately 36 million dollars to work with for programs, Taylor said, and there are almost 49 million dollars in requests.
“Cuts are going to have to be made,” Taylor said. “We will select the best ones, and the ones we select, they might have to pair them back a little bit to fit our budget.”
Once the Operating Committee comes up with a overall proposal- the full Beef Board will vote on approval and then that will be forwarded to USDA for their approval to comply with the act and the order under which the Beef Checkoff operates.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR at the top of the story for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
